My biggest two girls are learning to play the piano. We’ve only got a keyboard at present which is sat on a desk which means that they need to be a little higher than standard chair height.

I had an old stool that I’d acquired somewhere and a load of old towels and some canvas my Dad had passed on to me. Armed with these, some sandpaper and a DIY staple gun I set to work  to make them a piano stool. Unfortunately in my excitement I forgot to take any before pics! (The top of the stool was a varnished cork tile – nice!) I started rubbing down the legs with a view to  a shabby chic paint job but since it had been repainted so many times the effect was instant! So as my love lives with the creating side I called it done and set to work covering the top with an even pile of towels to the required height. Next I stapled some canvas offcut to one side and stretched it across, stapling to the underside of the seat on the opposite side. Then I stapled the other sides trying to make sure the corners were folded in (like when you wrap a present) to give crisp edges. (It would be an easy job to whip the staples out and wash the canvas and “wadding” if a spruce up was needed.)

Now for the fun bit. I crocheted a tray cover, following a pattern from Simply Crochet magazine issue 08, alternating the colours to match my scheme. the pad was 14″ square so I made the cover to 14″ then held it at that size for two rounds before decreasing in size again for 6 further rows to about 12″ square. This makes a ” beret” for the stool pad which just slips on and doesn’t appear to need fastening on. If you did need to tighten your cover you could easily weave a ribbon in and out of the stitches of on the last rounds and tie a bow at the bottom of the seat.

I now have an extra seat that I’m quite proud of and certainly wouldn’t mind bringing out at Christmas (much better than the grim looking stool as it was.)